A Circle of Celebrations: The Complete Edition (9 page)

“That’s nothing!” Mikael Ashkenazi said, with a laugh that shook his round belly. “We’re used to arguing. The saying is that if you ask eight Jews a question, you’ll get twenty different answers.”

“You ask good questions,” Rachel said, with more aplomb than Carter would normally have given her credit for having, although in her role as a scientist, he considered her fair but fierce in defense of her research. “We’re making new traditions. Maybe some of these queries should be added to the Four Questions. It will help us explain God to those who have not grown up in a deistic culture.”

“Rachel, no!” Sidney Fehr protested, his dark eyes flashing under his heavy eyebrows. He was in charge of the colony archives, blog, and databases. “We don’t change the traditions.”

Rachel shook her head, a little sadly. “We always change, Sidney. I wouldn’t be a rabbi if we hadn’t changed some traditions. It’s how we survive.”

“Survive,” Mmm’dkk said, pushing aside her now-empty soup bowl. “I wished to speak of survival! Are you prepared to survive now?” She turned to Carter and Melody Chikungwe, the settlement’s co-commanders. “We have little time before you must move, or this settlement did not last.”

“Will not last,” Ll’ppp’rrr corrected her gently, with a trilling of the final
T
. “Your God works in ways that we do not understand. But you act with some logic. You reached out to us in friendship; let us do also. We postponed our own Exodus to the northlands to join you here. Come with us today, tonight! It is time and past time to leave this place for the season. The chh’nkh are coming. They will emerge soon from the deep swamps. Within two solar passes of their appearance, they birth their young. They will come through here soon. You must leave this place for that time. You knew of the dangers when you chose to put your homes here.”

Carter felt a chill race down his spine. Placing the settlement had been a matter of discussion and argument. This was a fruitful valley, suitable as far as matters of sunlight and water were concerned. In any case, no one wanted to live in the swamps. The Visitors warned them that it would have to be evacuated annually for a period of up to fifteen days as the predators used the valley as their hatching grounds. Then they retreated downriver with their newly borne young, not to be seen again until the next time.

The initial satellite survey of Nong had returned considerable footage of the primary predatory race. Chh’nkh reminded him of whale-sized velociraptors combined with the alien from
Alien
with its multiple jaws. Two of them had torn apart a browsing marsh reptiloid between them as though pulling a giant wishbone. The resultant gore had made a few of the scientists in the orientation hall run for the toilets.

“I thought we had more time,” Rachel said.

“No more,” Ll’ppp’rrr replied. “Please. It is dark now. We can escape if we hurry.”

“We have taken your warning into advisement,” Melody said, with a smile. “You have been generous friends. We are prepared to leave next week, as we discussed.”

“The rumblings have already started,” Ll’ppp’rrr said. “They are early, but must not be ignored. The chh’nkh will kill all beings that they see. If they fear for their nestlings, they will tear these habitats apart. You will not escape
later
.”

It was a solemn reminder to the scientists. During the first month of the colony, two of the xeno team had hidden themselves in a blind to observe the huge predators hunting for food. An unlucky noise at the wrong moment had brought the hungry herd down on them. They hadn’t survived. Carter had forced himself to view the bodies in the ruin of the shelter. It had been a horrifying mess. The only things left intact were specimen cases containing some biological artifacts and two chh’nhk eggs.

“We still have time,” Carter said. “We have plenty of hydrogen-powered craft to take us up into the safe zone. If we have to, we’ll load up the big shuttle, too. The chh’nkh are nowhere near us yet.” He beckoned to the head of geology, who sat at the next table. “Nina, didn’t you check the seismometer? We would hear the vibrations as they are tunneling upward.”

“Exactly,” said Nina Chessman. “The epicenter is kilometers from here.”

“From within the swamps, ninety-four links from here?” Ddd’ohh asked. A link was about two meters. Nina did the math in her head.

“No, in the sedimentary formations …” she stopped in horror. “The spongiform peat would absorb most of the vibrations of a closer approach.”

“We’ve been tracking the chh’nkh,” Sidney said. “All sightings so far are in the delta on the other side of the ridge. There’s only a narrow passage that the river goes through to the falls, and none of them have come that way. We’re ready to evacuate when they start to cross.”

“They won’t. They travel the underground rivers to the main nesting places,” Ll’ppp’rrr said, pointing to the far wall. In that direction, beyond the Lexan windows, were gentle rolling hills. Early in the settlement’s first few months, Ippolita had found abandoned and unhatched eggs in gravel nests that were now on display.

“Where are those?” Rachel asked.

Nina’s deep bronze cheeks paled. “Everywhere.”

A roar shook the dining hall. The colonists looked at one another in horror.

“That came from right under our feet,” Melody said.

“There’s an underground stream directly below the building,” Nina said. She pulled up a chart on her tablet and showed it to the colony chiefs. “The colony purification system draws from it for drinking water. Downstream, we drain waste into it. All the colony buildings are attached to the system. It’s a big channel. The chh’nkh could swim it. It would be upstream, but they’re strong.”

Melody looked at the Visitors. “We thought chh’nkh only traveled overland.”

“They stay below as long as possible,” Mmm’dkk said, almost apologetically, although Carter knew it was their own damned fault not to have asked for more empirical detail. “Only some come by way of the pass. Their skins do not like the hot sun, but it helps the eggs to hatch.”

The clattering of heavy metal brought everyone in the colony to their feet. Carter and a number of others rushed to the wide window and looked up the narrow valley. The bright orange solar-powered lights picked up movement at ground level. To his horror, the street near the hangar was
heaving
. The metal grid that served as a sewer cover shot into the air. A massive claw emerged and pawed the air. It withdrew, to be replaced by a massive, triple-jawed head with pebbled skin and wide, glassy eyes. The chh’nkh heaved and strained at the opening. The framework came away with a snap that echoed all the way along the valley. The enormous beast, twelve meters long if it was a centimeter, scrambled out of the new opening and shook itself. The metal ring hung around its neck like a torque. It shook its head. The metal contraption flew off and crashed into the wall of the laboratory building. As soon as its massive rump cleared the opening, dozens of smaller chh’nkh poured out into the valley behind it.

Chh’nkh resembled the Visitors in the same way that human beings resembled lorises. One could tell that they had descended from common ancestors, one with vertical jaws and blue skin, but had diverged long ago, with the chh’nkh evolving toward alpha predator, and the Visitors toward intelligent civilization. The chh’nkh were sheer power, killing machines made of muscle and bone. The Visitors had said that the beasts could shove aside boulders bigger than they were. It hadn’t dawned on him, not really, what that meant.

They lifted their strange heads and sniffed the air. To Carter’s horror, they turned and swarmed toward the hangar. The hemicylindrical rolled-plastic structure housed all the small travel carriers that the colony possessed, and the fifty-person shuttle they used to transit between the surface and the interstellar ship in orbit around Nong. The leader sniffed all around the big door, then let out a horrifying roar. The smaller ones charged the flimsy metal shutter. It crumpled at their onslaught like a handful of tinfoil. Carter saw the alarms that lit up on the wall screens and his own tablet. Surveillance cameras showed the chh’nhk tearing into the cabs and passenger compartments of the small craft housed in the hangar.

“They have your scent now,” Ddd’ohh said.

“What do we do?” Nina clutched Carter’s arm.

“Prepare to evacuate,” Carter said, turning to the gathering crowd of scientists and support personnel. “On foot, if we have to. Emergency procedures, everyone!”

The security force, twenty strong, went for the weapons locker and armed themselves with pistols and long energy rifles. Their sure movements gave Carter confidence. “Everyone, to your stations! Let’s get ready to move out! Will you guide us to safety?” he asked Ll’ppp’rrr.

“It is difficult now,” Ll’ppp’rrr said, opening and closing his long digits. “The chh’nkh are already here. Soon, they will sense us. Some will not survive.”

“Do we have enough firepower to take all of them down?” Ippolita asked Lieutenant Ottolino, the leader of security team.

“No!” Rachel exclaimed, horrified, pushing in between them. “We’re not here to destroy a native species! We’re here to study them.”

“Even if they kill us?” Ippolita said, scornfully. “I do not intend to die for science. Kill as many of them as we can!”

Rachel shot a look at the Visitors. “The reason we were allowed to establish an exploration lab here was because we agreed to respect the sanctity of life.”

“At the cost of our own? Wipe them out!”

“That’s not our brief,
professora
,” Ottolino said.

“You have to save us!” several of the scientists protested.

“We are not going to wipe them out,” Carter said, reasonably, patting the air with his hands. “We just need enough force to enable us to escape. Ippolita, you have duties. Rachel, you, too. Let’s get to them. And so have the rest of you! Get ready to bug out!”

Rachel Sternberg put her hands on her hips. “Right. Mikael, take a loader and move as much of the dehydrated supplies as you can. See how much of the fruit in the greenhouse is ripe.” The children clung together in the middle of the room. Some of them were crying. She swooped down on them. “Kiddies, help Mikael. You know he’ll pick out only the boring vegetables. We want some good things, too.” She clapped her hands. “Go! Hurry up! You have ten minutes.”

The cluster of youngsters seemed to unfreeze. They rushed out ahead of the heavyset scientist, a few of them pulling urgently at his arms.

Kneeling beside the two little ones who were left weeping in the middle of the gray plascrete floor, Rachel gathered them into her arms. “You two have a most important job. I need you as my assistants. Come on. We’re going to lock all of the doors.” They struggled to their feet. Rachel took each by the hand and looked over their heads at Carter.

Do something!
her eyes said.

Locking the doors wasn’t going to help much, considering that the chh’nhk had just torn through the metal side of the vehicle depot, but it gave the colonists a small illusion of comfort.

“Come on, folks, we all have something to do!” Melody shouted. “Food, medical supplies, water purifiers, pest repellent, bedding, go!” The adults scattered.

Carter turned to Lll’ppp’rrr. “Do the chh’nhk hunt by scent, by sound, or by sight?” he asked. “One sense predominates in most Earth predators.”

“By all, alas,” the Father of Memory said, his lowermost mouth drooping open in an expression of sorrow. “They are fearsome. If you have thoughts of your God, I hope they give you comfort.”

“Oh, my God, they’re tearing up the library!” Sidney bellowed. “We have to get out there and save it!”

Carter ran to the window. To call the squat brown structure a library was Sidney’s own description. “But that’s just a massive server,” he said. “None of us go in there except in clean-suits. It shouldn’t smell of us.”

“They tear apart everything but their own nests,” Lll’ppp’rrr said, almost apologetically.

“They protect their eggs,” Mmm’dkk said.

“Their eggs?” Carter blinked once. The chh’nhk overran the next building, and the next. They tore apart the barn, dragging farm equipment out into the street as though it was prey. Carter was grateful the farm animals were high up in a terraformed pasture, but how long until the chh’nhk reached them? “What about their eggs?”

“They don’t destroy their own nests,” Mmm’dkk said, laying her manipulative digit on Ddd’ohh’s arm. “Their children are precious to them, as ours are to us.”

“What can we do?” Melody asked, her usually placid face flushed. “We can’t get young chh’nhk we can hold on the roofs to drive away the adults. That’s inhumane, for a start.”

“No, we don’t need living young,” Carter said, grinning for the first time. “That Pesach plate is a sign from God. Eggs! We have preserved specimens of chh’nhk eggs!” He ran to the cases. The eggs were there, two of them, the size of prize watermelons, but dark brown in color for camouflage, with the same kind of rippled pattern as the chh’nhk’s skin. The stasis cubes were individually operated, so they could be opened when the xenologists wanted to examine the object.

Debri Sultan had overheard him. She abandoned the supply cart she was pulling to the rear entrance to race over to his side. She pulled his hand away from the controls.

“Leave those specimens alone!” she protested. “Finding intact eggs was almost impossible! It may be all we have left of our studies.” She gulped. Her bravado didn’t conceal her nerves. Carter could feel her hand trembling. “It might be all that’s left for the next survey team to collect from this site.”

“I want to try, Debri,” Carter said, keeping his tone gentle but firm. “It could give us the chance to live until the hatching is all over. You’ll find more, later. When we’re all safe.”

“I’m not taking that from a politician like you,” Debri said, lifting her chin in defiance. “We lost people when we gained those eggs. Did you forget that?”

“And we’ll lose more people if we don’t try,” Carter said. He stood eye to eye with the tall woman, and waited.

It didn’t take that long. Debri prided herself on being logical. She turned to the stasis box and deactivated the field on one of the cells. Tenderly, she lifted out one of the eggs. Carter tried to take it, but she twisted to keep it out of his grasp. “If anyone is going to destroy this, it will be me. What should we do?”